Page 65 of Double Pucked

Wanting that is a whole new feeling—one I dislike and like at the same damn time.

23

TOYS, TOYS, TOYS

Trina

“Where did you get this pound cake?” Cassie asks through a forkful of spongy dessert, which she’s eating before dinner. “It’s amazing.”

“The Poundcake Factory,” I say with a straight face. We’re at Oak and Vine, our parents’ favorite restaurant in the city, a cute little café in Hayes Valley.

“Oh, right near here, you said?” Cassie asks, like a dog with a bone, or perhaps a pillow.

“Cassie, is the baby still moving all the time?” I ask, wanting to shift gears far away from my imaginary dessert shop.

Cassie sets down the fork. “Yes, he or she does somersaults,” she says, proudly rubbing her belly.

Mom turns to me, a hopeful look in her eyes. “Trina, don’t you want to experience that someday?”

My father coughs into his hand, perhaps a suggestion for her to stop pressuring me, but it’s hardly a firm warning since she waves a hand, dismissing him. “They’re such wonderful things. Motherhood, pregnancy, family…I want you to have all that before it’s too late.”

“Yes, at twenty-five my clock is ticking,” I say dryly, praying this dinner flashes by in a wink.

“Let’s solve Trina’s housing situation first, Mom,” Cassie says with a laugh that’s definitely at my expense.

“I have solved it,” I snap, annoyed with her. “I have a place I’m moving into next week.”

“And until then you’re living with some guy you hardly know,” Cassie adds, like she wants to get me in trouble. I clench my jaw. I didn’t need Mom and Dad knowing about my unconventional living arrangements.

“Oh! Is it serious?” Mom asks, rustling around in her purse for something, then grabbing her phone. “Is it the guy in the pic that was with you and Nacho?”

My mom stalks me online? I better make sure I don’t accidentally make out with both Ryker and Chase at the wedding. Though, can you accidentally make out with someone? No, make-outs are definitely intentional. I’ll just have to keep my frisky mittens to myself at the wedding on Sunday.

“Does he treat you well?” Dad puts in before I can answer my mom.

Mom’s eyes twinkle with, presumably, baby rattles and pacifiers. “When can we meet him, Trina?”

Never.

Cassie nods to the TV in the corner of the bar. “Right now. Well, virtually. He’s on TV.”

Who needs a voice when you have a big sister?

“Ooh, an actor?” Mom asks.

“Sweetheart, I think he plays sports,” my dad says, nodding to the hockey game on the screen, and this dinner is worse than Nacho humping a pillow in front of my two guys.

A million times worse, because my parents have stamina that a three-legged Min Pin does not possess.

Weirdly, I’m dying to watch the TV, but I also want time to speed by, so I meet my sister’s gaze and fall on the sword. “Tell me more about how big the baby is.”

That earns me a small respite, but at the end of the meal, the conversation comes back to me.

“So, are you seeing this guy a lot? Outside of his home, I mean?” Mom asks, enthused.

One dog park visit and we’re a thing? Well, maybe it’ll get them off my back for a couple days. “I’m going to a wedding with him this weekend.”

“Oh, how lovely,” Mom says.

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